


A Time Without

by cypherd



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 17:02:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5751130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cypherd/pseuds/cypherd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Great Papyrus is merrily enjoying his time above ground, making new friends, exploring new talents, planning for his future...and all the while wondering why his brother almost seems to want to go back under ground and hang out in a dive bar every day. </p>
<p>That is, until one of Papyrus' new talents inadvertently takes him deep into the world of what his brother's been hiding and just how great the Great Papyrus is is going to be sorely tested if he wants everything to return to normal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Time Without

**Author's Note:**

> *Notes: I chose to have Papyrus ‘voice’ not be consistently in all caps and make the switch halfway through. Since he’s our viewpoint character through most of this romp, it feels like a stylistic choice that will be to readers’ benefit, like the hell that is not having to try and read people’s attempts at transcribing dialects.

Chapter 1

 

Papyrus pressed the side of his face to the door and listened a moment, considering his options before making up his mind and drumming the flat of one hand harshly against it and rattling the locked jamb with the other.

 

"SANS!" he thundered, in a pitch well above even his usual incredible volume. “SANS! ARE YOU IN THERE!?”

 

There was only more silence to answer him. This meant his brother was surely not home. Sans snored like a tanker truck and he would fake-snore even louder if he wanted to try and fool someone into taking off and leaving him be.  

 

Papyrus was aware he'd be seeing less of his brother until such time as he worked out where the (probably already quite extensive) cache of new hidey holes and other places Sans had found on the surface to nap and have snack breaks and generally escape people who might want him to do an honest day's work were. At this point however, he could feel the beginnings of a frustrated tantrum coming on as he deduced exactly where his brother likely was right now.

 

Oh, he'd be willing to let him have it this time under almost any other circumstance. His brother loved that horrid grease trap for some reason and today was the first day the flaming barman had been able to re-open his establishment, or a version thereof on the surface. 

 

Sans however had been, well, un-like his brother as he could be as of late, and not because he suddenly decided to start caring about or putting effort into something. If possible, he had gotten even more laconic than he had been before the surface, but this particular brand of laziness was tainted by something far more black and insidious. 

 

Papyrus had never thought he would actually miss the stupid puns or the rude noises. No, his brother had instead picked up a whole different kind of rudeness, one that not even people with bad taste in humour or those who found enjoyment in disgusting bodily functions would appreciate. It was a sour, sullen sort of impoliteness primarily directed at any of the new human friends that Papyrus had tried to make. And wowie, was it getting frustrating. 

 

It wasn't as though they couldn't afford to relax a little bit; even Papyrus could appreciate that.  Humans apparently really, really wanted their gold and their new home was at least as comfortable as the one they had shared in Snowdin, if not more so. Besides that, Papyrus had managed to get a car and even had no problems abiding by the humans driving laws. There were plenty of people who wanted to spend time with him up at the human-school that was for older humans, not kids still in striped shirts, plenty of whom more than covered the requirements for new licenced driving buddies.  

 

They had other interesting things there too, including (much to Alphys and Undyne's delight) an anime club, and a club for brothers and some strange club that had left him and the two female monsters feeling very confused about Quilts and Bags and humans who needed support for...bedsheets? One of his new friends had explained it had something to do with relationships and identity, so he supposed he might look into it one day when the last chapters in the dating handbook didn’t make him blush and have to stop reading when he felt all sort of odd. Besides, he already knew he was the Great Papyrus, what else did he need to cover?

 

The upside to all this meant that he could take his time and really figure out what he wanted to do when he got to officially go and learn there. There were humans who wrote and drew and played music, there were humans who did stuff like all that science that his brother used to be so interested in, some that studied all the things that humans did in the past, still others who actually played sports for a job and incredibly those who learned to help others to learn. It all sounded fascinating to Papyrus. 

 

On the other hand, the ‘red tape’, as he heard Asgore put it once (though he didn't quite understand the phrase) meant that it wouldn't happen right away. Perhaps not for a very long time.  Papyrus himself was a monster and had a significantly longer lifespan than most humans so he felt he could live with that. Where the problem lay was that it seemed that every second his brother was inactive, the less likely it looked like he would ever become so again.  With each day that ticked by, Papyrus became all too aware of the sheer amount of responsibility he was now shouldering and the many executive decisions he seemed to be expected to make about their day to day lives.

 

It was time for just such a decision. He, The Great Papyrus; as the situation at hand demanded someone capable of the most tremendous feats of daring, would brave The Grease Trap and come hell or high water, bring his brother home from its dark and nefarious depths. 

* * *

 

Despite not caring very much for burgers or chips, it was nice to see that Grillby had a decent clientele and not all of them were monsters. There was kind of a divide to the room but at one end a group of humans were cheerfully talking to a rather intoxicated rabbit and her duck friend, the whole lot of whom were shoveling down fried spring rolls and laughing like they did this every weekend. Sans was not among their number which further tightened the knot of urgency in Papyrus' not-a-gut.  Even this sullen, shadow-of-his-brother Sans showed vestiges of enjoying being the center of attention when the attention was amusement at a good (horrible) joke. 

 

One of the boys looked up  from the table he'd been eyeballing and Papyrus realized he recognized him from the club he was going to join when he was allowed to go to the adult-school:  the one where they were all brothers, but not really brothers. 

 

A glass was raised in the tall skeleton’s general direction.  "HEY! It's PAPYRUS! The FUN brother!" 

 

Oh no. When had HE become the FUN brother? He cast around for the guy’s name - now that he knew so many more humans, he couldn’t just call them all ‘human’. "Er...JUSTIN! SPEAKING OF BROTHERS...I WAS LOOKING FOR MINE!"   

 

Justin grinned. "See?" he poked the arm of a girl next to him. "I TOLD YOU THIS MONSTER GUY WAS GREAT! HE'S ALWAYS THAT LOUD!" Justin too was talking louder than normal to be heard over the din of the other patrons in the bar, but compared to most humans, Papyrus’ indoor voice was comparatively rather impressive. 

 

The girl giggled a bit and gave him one of those strange Mettatonesque stares that quite a few human females tended to give him. Noticeably almost always the females. 

 

"MY BROTHER?" he repeated. Now was not the time to decipher strange human staring customs. 

 

"Ummmm...." Justin scanned the bar quickly, finally pointing into a dreary little corner, way at the far end of the bar, next to the fire exit. 

 

Indeed, Sans occupied the corner, so far huddled into one of those hoodies he liked that his entire face was nearly obscured. If not for the fact that he could now see the white of his skull just visible under the bar light, he would have totally missed him. He himself hadn’t even acknowledged Papyrus. Whether that was because he was willfully ignoring him or lost in his own world, it was hard to say, 

 

At any rate, he was staring down and using his finger to flick crumbs off a small stack of empty plates.  A nice little collection of empty ketchup bottles and glasses of some drink he assumed must have contained poison....er,  _ alcohol _ , judging by the slump of his posture sat in front of him on the table. Or, maybe they’d been nothing more disgusting than plain soda or milk. It was hard to tell these days. 

 

Having seen enough of this sorry spectacle he gathered himself up and whirled over, leaning over so his scarf was practically up Sans’ nasal cavity

 

"BROTHER WE ARE GOING HOME."

 

Papyrus wasn't rough with Sans, lest whatever he had been consuming make a reappearance on him, but his tone brooked no argument.

 

For his own part, Sans didn't protest, despite being in the rather demeaning position of being tucked under Papyrus’ arm like a small toy.

 

"UGH, YOU WEIGH A TON!"  and he cringed out of habit but inwardly hoped against hope that setting his brother up like that would actually yield a result. It didn't, and that's when Papyrus officially realized that things had gone from bad to dire. 

 

"Hey, Papyrus!" Justin called after him. "Movie night at the Omega house next week! Bring your friends the lesbian fish and lizard okay! I owe the fish chick a round of beer pong!"

 

Arranging his face into an at least partially honest-to-goodness excited grin, he waved with his free arm. "I WILL BE THERE, MY FRIEND!" 

 

Undyne had developed a liking for the drinking activities - not the drinking itself per-se, but the fact that she had a talent for games that made other people have to consume copious quantities of it. Given her penchant for inciting fits of projectile puking, Papyrus wasn't surprised, but figured it couldn't be good for the poor humans.  

 

Then again, given the amount of the stuff they seemed to willfully consume at their functions, maybe they were on the same page as the former royal guard.

 

Speaking of things that weren't good for humans, he looked down at his brother who was silent and therefore not asleep.  "IT WOULDN'T HURT YOU TO COME OUT WITH US ONCE IN AWHILE, WOULD IT BROTHER? UNDYNE AND ALPHYS WOULD COME, AND THE HUMANS ARE MUCH NICER THAN YOU SEEM TO THINK! AFTER ALL, FRISK TURNED OUT TO BE NICE!”

 

Sans had no reply to that

 

"IT CANNOT BE HEALTHY FOR YOU TO BE COOPED UP IN THAT GREASE TRAP! DIDN'T YOU HEAR THAT JUST NOW? I AM GETTING THE REPUTATION FOR BEING....” he pulled a face. “....THE FUNNY ONE! YOUR HONOUR IS AT STAKE!"

 

Papyrus maneuvered them out of the bar, grateful for years of honing his magical control being of excellent use right now. He focussed half of his attention on wending his way through the crowds of humans without so much as jostling him or his cargo into anyone coming the other way, but the other half was turned inwards on what he would eventually say to Sans. Words were not his forte, that talent belonged to his brother, even if he did squander that particular gift on ridiculous puns.  Given what he had just witnessed however, he wasn't sure if simple refusal to give up on you, brotherly love and I’m-not-mad-I'm-disappointed' speeches were going to cut it any longer. 

Then, there was the screaming.  

 

Papyrus almost decided to ignore it. Human history, he had discovered had all but forgotten them and their exile underground, relegating monsters to horror movie abominations that cornered trembling humans, usually of a particularly slender and high-pitched feminine shape and did everything from slice them into bloody ribbons to eat them. Depending on the human in question and sometimes the time of year, they enjoyed the fear that these bizarre portrayals induced. Depending on the monster, perhaps not so much. King Asgore had been too ashamed over something around Christmas time and for some reason this had meant his brother hadn’t come with him to see Santa….but on the other hand, he and Undyne had incredibly fond memories of yelling at and getting yelled at by a bunch of humans around the end of October. 

 

His old Royal Guard instincts won the day when he recognized the timbre of the yells as those of someone who was not frightened but rather in a great deal of pain. A quick sweep of the area and he spotted the source of the disturbance: a small knot of humans had clustered around the scene and being rather tall, Papyrus saw what was going on almost immediately. 

 

A two-wheeled car - a motorbike, Papyrus' brain reminded him - lay toppled over and the fallen human lay a few feet away.  The driver couldn't have been much older than Justin and the group back at Grillby’s, but they were crying as hard as Frisk ever did when they fell down. Papyrus wondered what in the world these people were doing. Surely he, a Monster knew that HUGS were the obvious cure. 

 

Well there was nothing for it. The Great Papyrus was going to have to intervene and teach these humans a thing or two.

 

He didn’t exactly drop Sans but he set him down firmly enough to warn him that just because he was going to get involved here didn't mean that their upcoming chat about the night's events wasn't still impending.  

 

“AS YOU CAN SEE THERE IS A HUMAN IN TROUBLE IN NEED OF MY AID! I AM SURE YOU CAN RETURN TO OUR DWELLING UNDER YOUR OWN POWER AND IF YOU ARE IN NEED OF FURTHER SUSTENANCE THERE IS PLENTY OF IT IN OUR OWN CUPBOARDS!”

 

He hoped it was enough to deter him from a backtrack to Grillbys’ and now unburdened, crossed the remaining few feet to the action.

 

The crowd was reacting to the fallen human in a myriad of ways,  from feigning ignorance and scurrying on undeterred to the sort of useless flailing and panic of those who did not fare well under pressure to a very select few who were calling paramedics and attempting to keep them awake and conscious. 

 

Papyrus didn't have much trouble breaking through the crowd himself, most seemed to assume hindering a large determined skeleton monster was under the circumstances not something they wanted to deal with potential consequences of. 

 

Drawing level with the human, he drew himself to a screeching halt as he realized that something much more wrong than he initially assumed had happened here.. 

 

The human lay splayed out on the pavement. Its clothing was torn and there was a long, bloody scrape of skin, but that was where the similarities to any injury he’d ever seen Frisk sustain stop. The human’s skin was almost as white as his own bones and it’s leg was bent at an awkward angle which would have been fine - if that human had been Dr. Alphys.

. 

He scattered more humans as he bent to take a closer look and suddenly it all seemed so clear. “EVERYONE I KNOW WHAT MUST BE DONE!”

 

A human on a mobile phone talking to the EMT gave him a look of extreme irritation that eventually gave way to shock. 

 

“Holy. Shit.”

 

His eye flaring with magic, Papyrus reached out and found every last fragment of bone that lay across the accident zone and very simply he manipulated it, easily as he had ever done sparring with Undyne or in play-fighting with Sans. There was little he could do about the scarring on the human's arms or the open wound the bone had left in the flesh, but the human was looking more natural-peachy again and shakily rolled over to stare at him with an expression of unflattering disbelief. 

 

“Whoa.” 

 

The human on the phone who had initially given him an angry look was also no longer looking angry, coming forward while unzipping his coat and removing a scarf. He was short with dark brown skin and short almost-black hair that had been gelled straight up and to one side. “Listen, that was a load of WOW. I bet all those humans who sealed you guys away would be kicking themselves if they realized you guys could do that! I mean, WOW. Uh. I’m Bashir. I told the Ambulance to come, but um, I think you’d better stick around and talk to them because I don’t know how I’m going to explain this without you.”

 

“I’m Michelle.” the human piped up from her position on the ground, her voice as weak as Papyrus’ had been powerful, but getting stronger. She seemed no less dazed than Bashir had been. “Oh geez do I owe you a big one um....”

 

“AND I WOULD BE…” Papyrus paused, cutting himself off. Somehow, it almost didn’t feel right to showboat in this situation. “...I AM CALLED PAPYRUS! MICHELLE, YOU MUST REST!”

 

“I...really felt like passing out for awhile there, but now I doubt I’m going to sleep for a week. I mean, that was magic, wasn’t it? Honest to God magic!” 

 

“Funny, neither am I, mate.” 

 

Papyrus absentmindedly handed over his smartphone when Bashir offered to program contact information into all three. He was elated at the prospect of new friends, but his attention was divided again as he caught a fleeting glimpse of a flare of blue before what he could see of Sans who was still there (that was something perhaps) was obscured by people jostling by

 

Before Papyrus had time to dwell on it, the wail of an ambulance announced the arrival of the paramedics.  As he was not part of Michelle's immediate family, Bashir helped explain the situation before he bid her farewell. 

 

“Please...add me to Facebook tonight? I will when I can.”

 

“If I don’t there’s something wrong with me. We can catch up later. You too, Papyrus!”

 

“YES I WI--OH YES MEDICAL HUMAN, IT WAS I PAPYRUS WHO WAS ABLE TO HELP MEND THE HU...MICHELLE HERE!” 

 

The man bent over Michelle and peeled away the scarf, which Bashir had forgotten. 

 

“Amazing…” he muttered. “How did you do that?”

 

“OH THAT WAS OUR FRIEND BASHIR’S! HE WAS WEARING IT WHEN HE STEPPED OUT TODAY I DO BELIEVE!”

 

The paramedic gave him a glare that put him in mind of Undyne. “I mean how did you fix her broken bone!?”

 

“WHY I HAVE BEEN USING BONE ATTACKS FOR YEARS! I AM AFTER ALL A SKELETON AND HAD BEEN IN EXTENSIVE TRAINING WITH THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD TO JOIN THEIR RANKS! IT SEEMED ONLY LOGICAL THAT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO MANIPULATE BONES IN REVERSE!”

 

Michelle was now lying back on the gurney she’d been lifted onto, chuckling almost deliriously. “Heh...heh…oh man.” 

 

Papyrus was going to ask her if she was okay, but the medical human was getting his attention again. 

 

"This is...unorthodox but we would like you to come to the hospital. We however can't give you a ride-along as you are not this woman's family. However we would appreciate any information about the methods used." 

 

"Wait...we know where the hospital is!"  Papyrus nodded.  "Yes, my brother can get me there. "

 

“We intend on keeping the patient overnight, so why don’t you stop by when you have time tomorrow. Here’s a card, you can ask to speak to  myself, or there - that’s the chief of Medicine….er, after you’ve visited your new friend of course.”

 

Sans' teleportation 'shortcuts'  were available to him places he'd seen before. Shortly after returning to the surface, Frisk had gotten a bad enough illness that Toriel wasn’t going to risk trying to cure on her own when she had access to human doctors. Naturally, the slew of them had  all at one point or another visited their bedside, using his aid. It had turned out to be nothing more serious than the chicken pox which at Frisk's age had been simply rather frustrating for them save for the time off school and ambassadorial duties. 

 

He turned around and almost unintentionally rammed Sans’ face into his chest before catching himself and hopping back a pace. 

 

“Ah! Sans, it is imperative to my new friend’s recovery that we accompany the hospital humans back to their place of work tomorrow.”

 

“Sure thing bro.” 

 

“Really?” Papyrus had been prepared for a bit of a battle. Sans knew full well that Papyrus couldn’t take the car out without an experienced driver but he also knew that had plenty of friends who qualified as that. Still it was a bit of a surprise as to just how swiftly he’d agreed to the request, but Papyrus rallied hismelf nicely. “Well that is excellent! Which of my compelling arguments has changed your mind?”

 

“That was really just a real impressive bit of magic there” Sans shrugged, spreading his hands. “I’m curious to know where you thought it up.”

 

Papyrus blinked. Science wasn’t really his thing, but he didn’t feel like Sans was asking that. He kept walking and eventually decided on the simple truth. “I could feel where all the pieces of her bones were. I just fit them back together like a puzzle.”

 

Seemingly satisfied with this answer, Sans seemed to droop a little again, but the chuckle he let out felt quite a bit more like the monster he knew. “Hm. Real proud of y’there, bro.” he mumbled. “I’m takin’ a shortcut back home.”

 

Then, he was gone. 

 

Grillby’s wasn’t that far from the house, but although he wished Sans had stuck around, his brother’s genuine admission of praise and even his agreeable reaction to coming to meet a new friend had Papyrus feeling far, far better than he had in a long time. He was pleased to find Sans in bed when he arrived, so he let him be, chatting with Bashir who had sent him a friend request and several text messages asking him if he’d gotten home alright.

 

As it turned out, Bashir was a type of doctor too, but one that helped people with things going on inside their heads instead of their bodies. Papyrus didn’t quite get it entirely but his new friend was patient with the questions and before insisting they both go to bed, agreed to meet up with him and Sans when they went to visit Michelle and so Papyrus could talk to the Doctors at noon the next day.

 

He went to sleep high on the optimism that from now on, everything was going to be just fine.

* * *

Papyrus liked the hospital almost immediately. Tidy, white but yet with exciting things around every corner. Humans running and talking and putting humans back together like puzzles. Given Sans’ being true to his promise they were there early and staring down at a female human with a tight orange and grey-streaked bun perched on her head, a pencil behind her ear and a softly accented voice.

“Good afternoon, er, Gentlemonsters….” she trailed off a tad uncertainly, but recovered her professionalism swiftly enough to provide that particular glare cultivated by all hospital waiting room staff that somehow hit the crossroads between incredibly annoyed and motheringly helpful.  “Are you here to see someone in particular?”

“Why yes! I am the Great Papyrus and this is my brother Sans. We are here to see a human whom I know as Michelle, a patient who was supposed to be here with a broken leg, but thanks to my stellar abilities is now here for failing to operate her motorbike with optimum efficiency!”

The woman raised an eyebrow and brushed some patsy crumbs off the front of her blouse and giving them her best bored but genuinely authoritative stare. “And do you know the patient’s surname?” 

“I…” Papyrus faltered and then remembered that he did. Bashir had added them on their Facebook pages. It worked just liked Undernet had; Alphys had modeled the design on a phone she’d found in the dump. It certainly worked when it needed to right now as he thumbed through to his most recently added contacts. There was a Bashir Mohad right above... “Michelle Brannan.”

The woman’s face changed abruptly and she typed something on her own computer. “Room ten-oh-six, first floor.” She pointed to the lift. “Once you step out, head left - follow the numbered signs on the wall, you can’t miss it. Miss Brannan is in a semi-private room. Hers will be the bed nearest the window.”

“Thank you kind human! This is most appreciated!” Papyrus waved at the receptionist and took to the lift as directed, Sans in tow. His next fan letter to Mettaton would just have to be about how his next hotel should be based off a hospital! They were so efficient. And clean. 

“Sans, do take note of the human’s accomplishments with the element of bleach!” 

His voice and the ding of the lift doors drowned out the request to keep his voice down.

* * *

Room 1006 was rather empty when they arrived. The bed near the door had been freshly made with a pair of trousers, shirt and belt folded on a nearby chair. The bed the brothers had been told belonged to Papyrus’ friend was mussed but also unoccupied. 

“Well this is ridiculous! Michelle is not here, in fact this room is completely devoid of humans!”

“I guess you could say it’s sans hu---”

“WAIT!” What both Sans and Papyrus had taken to be a closet gave a shout that cut off Sans’ pun, followed by a whooshing noise. “Just a moment, just a moment.”

“You are SO lucky.” Papyrus grinned down at Sans. It wasn’t often that he was given a reprieve like this. First his brother started to act like his usual self,  then he wasn’t actually able to get the dreadful pun OUT. This was swiftly shaping up to be the best day ever. 

He had, in his exuberance quite mistaken the reason for the injection of sullen malcontent that seemed to have resurfaced above his brother’s trademark permanent skeleton grin, not for the interrupted pun, but the fact that they were not in fact alone. 

The door to the bathroom jiggled and Michelle hobbled out, one hand on a cane and the other determinedly clutching her gown closed behind her back.

“Oh Papyrus, you’re REAL! Man, you have no idea! I swear the second I had the opportunity to check my phone, I needed to know whether it had all happened or they’d just given me really good drugs!”

She kind of awkwardly hugged him, without letting go of her cane and keeping her other hand firmly clamped around the back of her garment. Her gaze drifted to Sans and Papyrus immediately dove to answer the unspoken question..

“This is my brother, Sans!”

“Oh! Hi, um...I’m Michelle. I’d shake your hand or something but I’m about to fall over anyway, just a moment.” She backed up slowly, clambering onto her bed awkwardly and settling herself. Papyrus had a brief moment to get a good look at her. She was tall for a human, particularly the female variety,  almost able to look him in the eye when she had been standing up. She seemed on the thinner side of average, though it was hard to tell in her bizzare pajamas which didn’t seem to close properly. She had slightly greasy dark brown hair with split ends that fluffed out at her shoulders which were also a pale peach. He noticed the colour of her eyes most of all, like, well like a blue attack. Papyrus found it fascinating the way he used to assume they all would look like Frisk: short and tousled, beige skin and narrow brown eyes.

“Grape?”

“Hm?” 

“Would either of you like a grape?” She was holding out a bowl of fruit. “Bashir called soon as I got in and sent them! I wonder why people send grapes when you’re in hospital. I always meant to look that up.”

Papyrus noticed her expression got that Mettaton quality look to it too when she spoke of their other new friend. Once again, he would have to question it some other time. The human was still bruised and lacerated. 

“How are you feeling, Michelle Brannan?” 

Michelle startled. “It’s fine to call me Michelle, Papyrus. And thanks to you, I feel fine. I guess they want to talk to you because I feel so fine….but they also want to keep me for observations.” She gingerly moved her left leg, the one Papyrus had fixed outside the blanket  and turned it to the side.

“They gave me twenty stitches. That’s why the limp, it’s still pretty tender.” 

Papyrus, and even Sans leaned forward to peer at the dressing out of sheer interest.

“HUMAN!” Papyrus exclaimed, not bothering to correct himself this time with her name in his worry. “SOMEONE HAS MISTAKEN YOU FOR THEIR KNITTING!”’

“That’s what’s supposed to happen. When those wounds heal, I’ll have a scar, but probably no lasting damage to my ability to walk or run or almost any other activity. They checked out everything, Papyrus. Thanks to you, looks like the worst I’ll be getting out of this is a talking point when I wear clothing that doesn’t go past the knee.” She smiled. “Though they do want to keep me overnight to run every test imaginable on me since no one’s ever been fixed by magic before. In a way, you kind of boned me there.”

Papyrus was struck dumb by the pun. 

“Get it?”

“Oh no, no, please…not you too with the puns!”

Papyrus shook his head. Such a nice human and of course she had to drop the lead anvil. Was Bashir like that too now? Was he doomed to having all the people he really liked torment him and his existence with AWFUL puns consistently? He prepared a tirade and that too was cut short by Michelle holding up a hand and offering an apologetic frown.

“Okay. No more puns. I’m sorry.”

Papyrus just stopped. “WHAT?”

Michelle lay back again. “Not gonna ask, sorry I said it. I’ll reserve my humour to topical or something from now on.”

Sans got up and headed for the door. Papyrus could see the energy radiating off his eye even though his back was turned.

“SANS! What has gotten INTO you?”

“If you have to go, it’s okay. Really sorry I got you into trouble.”

Papyrus figured that Michelle probably did NOT have brothers. “AH, No, Hu-MIchelle, my brother likes to torment me. It’s just a reaction to whatever…” he trailed off. Sans was gone. “Ah….ah no.” he sighed. “Just stay in bed Michelle, I gotta go find my bro.” 

* * *

Papyrus knew he couldn’t blame Michelle for Sans’ disappearance. His brother usually had thicker skin than that - thicker skin than he himself did. Lately however, everything he felt he knew about his brother seemed to be twisted and skewed, like looking at something through a kaleidoscope. All multiple Sanses, all dancing and twisting and blurring as he changed the perspective.

He whipped out of the room, finding himself almost dragged back against his will.

“Mr. Papyrus!” 

It took all of Papyrus’ strength not to bone attack the two humans that accosted him into a pile and he could later pat himself mentally on the back for not having done just that regardless. 

“We really must offer you a position here.”

“And we will go through the appropriate channels to find a way to get you into the appropriate schools.”

“Just so long as you join our institution as soon as…”

“YES! FINE! WHATEVER!”

That time he really did knock down the two humans, barely registering the greedy looks that crossed the faces of Dr. Cairns and Dr. Nguyen even as they brought themselves to their feet. A monster that could heal bones and goodness knew what else at their teaching hospital…they’d hold him to that...and then, make millions.

* * *

Papyrus couldn’t do the ‘shortcut’ magic like Sans could, but where that failed him, he found himself able to manipulate space and time in other ways. He was able to walk on water, for example, jump through plate glass and have the shards align themselves for easy cleanup and perhaps the most mundane, but ultimately useful here: cover long distances more swiftly than even most monsters ought to.

Only once had this worked to his detriment - when that dreadful deceitful flower had arranged it to get all of them and the human souls in place….but Frisk had fixed that. It should really never happen again.

He skidded to a halt at the door to the hospital. 

“Papyrus? What has happened?”

“I don’t know, Bashir! My brother...he just ran off!”

“A very young brother? Might it be dangerous for him to be out there on his own?”

Papyrus took a breath. “No, he’s the older one but... he’s he’s not been himself lately! He’s been rude and weird and not my brother at all and he made me run out on Michelle and attack humans...but I don’t think I hurt them.”

“He...made you….Listen, why don’t you come upstairs. Your brother is an adult correct? Perhaps he needs some time and space for a little while. He’s a monster as well and he might not have as easy a time adjusting to your new situation. I think you should talk to him, but for now come with me and we’ll keep our friend company for awhile. You know, perhaps if he needs it, your brother should come to talk to someone like me. I deal with the upheaval from moves and new surroundings with lots of patients.”

  
Papyrus allowed himself to be lead back up towards the elevators, his expression worried but feeling reassured by Bashir’s promise that he knew other people - humans, sure but other people nonetheless who had similar problems.

This feeling of hope and increasing contentment lasted as long as it took to get back up the lift and down the hallway. The lights flickered and an eerie, ghostly red glow was flickering under the door and Papyrus didn’t have to check to know which one it was and likely who would be on the other side..

He wasted no time in diving down the hall, pulling up just as the light flickered purple. He wrenched open the door, Bashir skidding under his outstretched arm. “MICHELLE!” he yelled, just as Papyrus screamed “SANS!” 

Sans was crouched at the end of Michelle’s bed, hand out stretched and lifting her in the air by her bad leg, or trying to - she was hung onto the bed railing and seemed at least for the present to be winning that war, as the purple light was emanating from Sans’ left eye.

Michelle was using her cane with her free arm to jab at him, hoping to hit him and break his concentration, but he was dodging her errant pokes with a dexterity that his brother didn’t normally possess, a pained look on his face. . 

With an effort that looked incredibly painful and cause Papyrus to wince in sympathy, the purple light became the ghostly red again. “I’d like to thank you, Papyrus.” the creature hissed and it didn’t sound anything like his brother. It was enough to get Papyrus to back off for whatever leverage that might buy all of them. 

“Do I get to call you brother now that I’m inhabiting this weak sorry little body? I mean, if it wasn’t for you, I never would have had the opportunity to take over...or find my way through the time lines.”

The group of them were frozen to the spot, listening to not-Sans talk. Only Michelle moaned from time to time, a warning for the other two to stay where they were or whoever this was was going to do worse than any motorbike accident ever could.

“Poor stupid Papyrus, a reverse-bone-attack? Attacks are made to destroy, not heal! It’s an oxy-moron….kind of like you. Without the oxy. Haha, I guess my jokes aren’t any better even though I kind of liked that one. But you did reverse something: the time around the accident that shattered this idiot’s ankle...and I just kind of slipped my way through. I always wanted your brother as my host. He knows so much about ALL the timelines and it’s going to be fun….picking his brain.”

Papyrus found his voice. “GIVE ME BACK MY BROTHER!”.  He didn’t care how weak it sounded.

The reply was equally blunt. “Nope. See you. I’m going to enjoy undoing what that little sap has done. See you...or, well, maybe I won’t. Ever Again.” 

There was an audible whoosh like a strong wind in the trees and Sans was gone. Michelle was released back to the bed where she bounced into the mattress with a hiss and a moan for her abused leg. Papyrus’ healing magic had certainly held - whatever Sans had been doing to hold her seemed to have been only painful (not to mention physics-defying.)

The lights flickered back on and Bashir and Papyrus were at the woman’s bedside in a moment, the group of them curled into some horrified jumble of ‘are you okays’ and ‘shall I get the doctor’ and ‘Papyrus what was that’ and it was quite some time before Papyrus had the presence of mind to decide he was going to get them the one person they needed.

Bashir was still holding Michelle. “We’ll get her discharged and then we’ll be there. All you have to do right now is get this...wait, Frisk? Isn’t that the name of that kid? The one people thought was lost?”

“Look, I’m the reason this happened. I’m sure that if Frisk is clever enough to handle introducing Humanity to Monsterkind, there’s got to be a reason that has nothing to do with their age. We will help when we can, Papyrus, I promise. I have the feeling you’re going to need me anyway so we can make sense of how my injury ties into whatever….whoever that was was talking about.”

The two humans smiled at one another in a nervous and pained sort of way, clinging together but Papyrus could feel the beginnings of the reassuring calm that came with a plan. He had his friends to believe in and they believed in him, just like he’d always said.

  
He was going to come for whatever had taken Sans and he wouldn’t be alone.

* * *

Now that Papyrus knew humans who were older, it was quite the experience viewing how comfortable the still-young Frisk was in their element, determination to help their friends blazing in their face. He’d described the situation as best he knew how and while Frisk was still silent most of the time and he knew much less of the sign language they sometimes used than Asgore or Toriel did, he still had no difficulty understanding what they wanted to communicate.

“My brother’s bedroom? I guess that would be fine. I don’t normally like to go in there, but under the circumstances, yes human I will grant you access!”

To Papyrus’ eyes, there was nothing remarkable about the bedroom at first glance. The place could have belonged to anyone’s messy, slovenly brother, with a pizza box shoved haphazardly in a corner, next to a trash can with a pile of styrofoam takeaway containers gone past the point of precariousness and spilled out onto the ground. A desk with it’s off-balance leg propped up by a trombone. An unmade bed that was at best a mattress on the floor and a gold wrapper peeking out from under the edge.

Frisk dove for the wrapper. 

“I do believe that candy is empty, Frisk….and to be honest now is not the time for snacking on chocola---” 

They held it out and Papyrus got a better look. That was not a gold wrapper. That was a gold key..

Papyrus held it to his eye, peering through the hole at the top. “What in the world is this?”

His eye fell on the desk of drawers. Sans had been awfully insistent on keeping this particular desk upon their move, despite the fact that there were plenty of human shops that could have supplied him with one that didn’t have a defective leg. Also, ones that he didn’t have to assemble himself. Papyrus had even offered to go to the store and pick something out for him but Sans had still refused, muttering something about sentimental value. 

Obviously Frisk had the same idea, already fitting the key into the top-most slot and successfully turning it. 

The bottom drawer was stuffed full of Grillby’s receipts, Papyrus supposed whatever had possessed his brother might want to go back in time and negate a tab that size, but this couldn’t be what he was hiding.

The middle drawer had a notebook. It was fairly incomprehensible chicken scratch as far as Papyrus could tell. The only thing he could make out were the words ‘i am the fartmaster’ scrawled on top. He handed the book to Frisk and while they cracked a sort of strange smile of scrutiny at the words then handed it right back with a shake of their perpetually messy head. Papyrus dutifully replaced the book and turned his attention to the top and final drawer. 

This drawer held a key, different to the one that had fit the pin-and-tumbler job from the desk of drawers. This one was a big silver one,  the kind that fit old, key-hole shaped locks. It was of course, a skeleton key. Bingo.

Frisk and Papyrus turned to each other at the exact same moment. Behind their house there was a shed - a familiar shed that had somehow made the trip all the way from Snowdin. Papyrus was willing to wager dollars to spaghetti that the key he was now holding fit that lock. 

He jumped through the window, landing perfectly in front of the door and not waiting for Frisk, jammed the key into the lock, not worrying about whether it would work.

By the time they joined him, he was still not sure what he was seeing.

* * *

Papyrus had always been close to his brother but he’d never begrudged him his own personal space. They told stories and built pillow forts, but he let him spend time with the barflies at Grillby’s and he had taken up with Undyne. They worried about and protected one another, but both of them had known when it was time to get their own rooms. He took the shed and turned it into a holding cell for potential humans he would capture, Sans had taken this garage in the back and made it a…?

Frisk had had to run down the stairs and come round the house to join him, but when they got there, Papyrus hadn’t really moved.

“My brother appears to have created a science lab?” 

The machine was emitting a low, vaguely disgruntled hum of a noise. It didn’t sound healthy. Instead it sounded sort of broken.

Frisk had noticed this too and pointed at the blueprints that sat out.

“Ah, good eye human! This must mean that my brother was trying to fix whatever this machine does!” He rolled them up. Dr. Alphys may have had made some errors in the experiments that had failed with those Amalgamate-Monsters from her lab but Mettaton EX was proof that she was an excellent engineer. If anyone could make sense of whatever Sans might have been trying to accomplish, she could. 

Over to his left Frisk was now the one staring nervously into the middle distance.

“What is it? What have you found?”

Papyrus came to peer over their shoulder. With shaking fingers, he took the stack of photographs from his friend’s hands.

“This is the picture from when we first came to the surface.” he recognized it immediately, his eyes roving around it, finding his own face first, then Sans, Frisk, the former Queen, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, He smiled at the happy memory.

Frisk had snapped out of whatever trance they were in and pointed at the picture stack, spinning their index finger in a circular motion. 

Papyrus caught on and dutifully flipped to the next one in the stack. He felt something awful crawling up his spine. It was the same picture, but several of the people in it had been scrubbed out by black ‘X’ marks through their face. In this one, it was only himself, Frisk Queen Toriel and Sans clear.

  
He flipped again.

Himself, Frisk and Sans

Again: Undyne, Frisk, Himself and Sans

Again: Sans...Toriel...and Frisk. 

THe unearthly shiver crept its way up his back again as he gazed upon his own face marked out and settled in his brain somewhere between knowing you did something wrong and eating too much Nice Cream too fast.

He handed the pictures back to Frisk, hoping he wouldn’t be sick.He sure felt like it right now. Frisk pocketed these as well, but their eyes were shining with determination and a spark of what seemed to be knowledge. 

They took a deep breath and locked eyes with Papyrus, their raspy and quiet voice, so much older than their current age suggested coming out of them with the power that had made them a successful ambassador. “We need to tell Mum about Chara.”

* * *

The group sat in Toriel’s sitting room: three humans and three monsters, all listening to the youngest in their number lay out what under almost any other circumstances have been the most incredible-sounding invented story a young mind could come up with.

In this case, each and every individual in the room knew it to be, if not true then probably a very accurate guess.

“No wonder this brother of yours was depressed.” Bashir said after a long moment. “I cannot even begin to understand what kind of hell it must be to know that one day you’re going to wake up and you might have to watch everyone die - or die yourself.”

Toriel was gripping the chair, her powerful claws leaving indents in the fabric. “What kind of parent must I have been that Chara would have decided that is what they wanted out of life!? Or, that it would be….any kind of a solution to their problems!?”

This time Bashir’s eyes wandered to Frisk. “This Chara then, this wasn’t about their life as a person. This happened after they died.” 

Frisk nodded. “Any time Chara managed to take over, no one recognized me as a human...but, the Chara who was alive was human. I learned that they were an unhappy human, long before they fell. I can understand how they felt.”

Toriel was rubbing tracks into the fur around her eyes. Bashir nodded and left Michelle’s side to comfort her, followed by Papyrus.

Michelle smiled at them and turned to Dr. Alphys who was indecisively lifting the blue prints up and down from her face, apparently unsure if this was a scene she should be interrupting. “Do you know what we are looking at here, Doctor? This machine?” Her voice suggested somehow she was resigned to what she was about to hear.

Alphys jumped, her gulp audible behind the paperwork. She spoke from behind her makeshift curtain, voice muffled but audible. “I-I believe that Sans...or s-someone e-else maybe, I have difficulty believing Sans himself was the original constructor. But i-it looks like it might b-be for some kind of time….machine.” 

Michelle flopped back a bit. “Knew it.” 

“I-i don’t understand it e-either.” Alphys squeaked. “I d-don’t even know if I can f-fix it, I...I’m afraid if I try it will end in d-disaster…”

“Well this Chara per...er...spirit,” she amended with a careful nod to Toriel, who was holding Papyrus’ hand very tight, but had clearly mastered herself as any Queen, former or not might. “It wanted Papyrus’ brother because he knows something about time and space - this machine, but from what Papyrus tells us also the ability to get from place to place - if he’s been to that place in the past.”

“It’s why we were there before you arrived.” Papyrus added to Bashir who nodded.

“Papyrus has this power too, but it’s not as well practiced, or, it’s manifested itself in different ways.”

Frisk nodded very agreeably to this. Alphys did as well, much to everyone’s shock. 

She turned bright red. “I had cam--I mean Undyne t-told me about a time you jumped out a window a-and the glass...went inwards…”

However he used this power to fix my leg - it was an opportunity for Chara to sieze just enough of a toehold to get hold of Sans who was - “ she glanced at Bashir. “Already worried about these things.”

Papyrus had been listening to this and finally he too broke, but he knew he wouldn’t quite make it through as well as Queen Toriel had. “I KNEW HE WAS UPSET!” he wailed. “AND ALL I DID TO TRY AND MAKE IT BETTER WAS GET UPSET AT HIM AND TRY TO TAKE HIM TO SCHOOL!”

“He means University my dear.” Toriel extricated her hand and took her turn to comfort.

Michelle nodded and there was a kind of odd group hug moment while Papyrus collected himself.

Frisk had officially moved themselves to Toriel’s lap.

“Dr. Alphys, please try and fix that machine.” They said.

“I can be an assistant.” Michelle said. “I don’t know how good of a one, but I fix computers for a living. Nothing that has to do with time travel mind you.”

Bashir glanced fondly at his new friend. “I’d like to be a part of this. I don’t know your friends and enemies but I’m putting together a profile on some of the parties involved. It might help.” 

“What about Dad?” 

Toriel’s expression darkened as it ever did when Asgore was mentioned but Frisk patted her hand with a reply wise beyond their years. “Chara was his child too. He has a right to know.”

“I, of course, you are right Child.”

“Undyne’s going to want to come soon as we tell her.” Alphys warned.

“I think Frisk should lead this mission.” Papyrus replied immediately.

Frisk shook their head. 

“UNDYNE WILL UNDOUBTEDLY HAVE MURDEROUS FEELINGS TOWARDS CHARA! AND THEY ARE VIOLATING MY BROTHER’S BODY!” 

“Frisk, my child, I agree. I do not wish for you to have to experience Chara’s machinations on your mind and SOUL again.” Toriel agreed. “Therefore, I too do not wish to lead. I am still too emotional over the involvement of my child. I am not ready to make those decisions.”

Papyrus shrank back a little at that. “Then I too am a problem.” His eyes drifted to Michelle, as did everyone else’s. 

She realized it too. “You mean to tell me that you’re planning a magical time travel rescue mission with a possessed gravity defying skeleton and you want as your leader a small-business IT worker?” She locked eyes with Papyrus. “I think that this wasn’t quite the ‘I owe you one’ that is in equal retribution. But if no one here feels like they can do this, I’ll head things up. I can delegate. However we have people here that we need to listen to, especially if we have people here that have been possessed by this thing before. Who is to say it can’t get hold of any one of us at any time?”

Papyrus nodded slowly, determination blazing in his eyes. 

“For that, we need all of us, but we need you Papyrus most of all. When I have taken this mission as far as I can, and when I say no more, you have to be ready to pick up the reins. Are you ready for that?”

All eyes now on him, Papyrus looked from Bashir to Frisk to Toriel to Alphys who had just come to peek around the blueprints finally and then resettled on Michelle. “I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL LEAD US TO RESCUE MY BROTHER!”

“Then I will get the ball rolling. Back to what we said earlier - I think we need a code word. Something we all will know that this Chara will not - something we can obviously use to communicate, especially if we’re worried about potential possession.”

Frisk tugged at Papyrus’ hand and whispered something at the side of his head where his ear would be if he had one.

Papyrus groaned and covered his eyes with his hand. “Oh fine. The code phrase is ‘I am the...fartmaster.”

Frisk grinned beatifically.

TBC

  
  



End file.
